Wednesday, 23 October 2013

Figure : Photo of those executed by Hizballah and posted to social media.

On October 8, 2013, the news website,
NewLebanon.info released
a video claiming to show members of Lebanon’s Iranian-backed
Shia Islamist Hizballah, executing what appeared to be wounded men
they pulled from the back of a van. The slain men were reported to be
Syrians, possibly captured rebels.

The video caused controversy with the
public and activists alike in Lebanon, Syria, the broader Middle
East, and the West. Hizballah has been silent on the issue, but one
spokesman said the organization would address the issue. Despite
accusations Hizballah had pulled-off the killings, along with audio
recordings demonstrating the executioners with Lebanese accents
talking about Iranian Revolutionary religious concepts (an important
underpinning for Hizballah’s ideology), there was still enough
plausible deniability available for Hizballah and other Shia militia
groups to argue they had no part in the killings.

Nevertheless, after analyzing Shia
militia social media pages, I did come across the proverbial,
“Picture worth a thousand words” in relation to the execution
video: A photo featuring the same men who had been killed in the
grainy execution video, were in fact the dead men in another
photograph. This picture was uploaded to a prominent pro-Shia
militia Facebook page which promotes the “Al-Muqawama al-Islamiyah”
(“The Islamic Resistance”). This term regularly describes Iranian-backed Shia Islamist groups
with militia apparatuses established in Iraq and Lebanon. It was also
of a higher definition than the video recording. Adding to the
photograph’s credibility was the fact that it was posted on October
1, 2013; Seven days before the video was released.

One of the dead men, the first to be
dragged from the van in the video and wearing visible red boxer
shorts is in the photograph. Another man, in a white T-shirt covered
in blood, was summarily executed in the video. For the photo, he was
placed in the pile of the other dead. The man in the striped sweater
was taken out of the van at 0.48 and was then shot in the head twice.
His destroyed cranium is easily spotted in the photograph and the
video.

Figure : The man in the red boxer shorts. (video capture)

Figure : The black shirted man lying dead over the legs of the man in the red boxer shorts. (video capture)

Figure : The dead and executed men lying in the same position as the hi-res photo above. (video capture)

When one follower of the page asked why
such a graphic image needed to be posted, the admin responded, saying
this would be the fate for anyone who wishes “to abuse Sayyida
Zaynab”. Another outspoken member of other pro-Shia militia
Facebook sites responded that the dead bodies were the result of,
“self-defense”.

The admin for the page claims to be located in Tehran, Iran and the page he administers says it is based in Iraq. The administrator is also a prominent poster of graphics which promote the cause of Iraq’s Kata’ib Hizballah, Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, and Lebanese Hizballah—all Iranian-backed suppliers of foreign Shia fighters to Syria. These graphics have been widely circulated in these circles, suggesting a more formal link between the administrator and these organizations.

After processing around eighty Facebook pages (posts from August 15th-October 23rd ) which promote pro-Shia militia in Syria material, only this Facebook page posted the photograph. When measured against more directly controlled Assad groups on social media, the same photo could not be found. Most interesting was the lack of any type of watermark which would demonstrate the photograph was taken from another website or source.

However, photographs of the executed had circulated elsewhere prior to the release of the video and to this particular photograph posted on Shia militia social media. On September 23, 2013, the same dead men were part of a post placed online by Bousla.net. At that time, it was claimed they were part of the Salafi rebel organization, Liwa’a al-Islam, and were ambushed in the rural East Ghouta region outside of Damascus. Furthermore, it was reported in the article that elements of Liwa’a Zulfiqar, a Syrian based Shia militia whose fighters primarily come from the aforementioned groups in Iraq, and work in conjunction with Lebanese Hizballah, led the attack. Elsewhere, on LiveLeak, the pictures were republished and it was added that the executed individuals were, “near jordanan border the place where the cia saudi arabia and jordanian intelligence finance and train rebels [sic]”.

Figure : Three of the photos published by Bousla.net which clearly showing the executed men in the video.

Most intriguing about the video and photo posts in news media (as opposed to social media), were the two sources to which this material was leaked. Both market themselves as “independent” Lebanese (as opposed to Iraqi, Iranian, Syrian, or other Arab outlets) news providers, have little original content, and do not have much of a share of an already packed Lebanese media market. Ironically, Bousla.net, the original poster of the images of those executed in the video, published a piece claiming the video was a fabrication and that Lebanese Hizballah had no role in the killings. Bousla.net also drew no connection between the original photos and the video.

Figure : The banner photograph for the Facebook page featuring the execution photo in question. The title reads, “Al Muqawama” (“The Resistance”). The logos for (left to right) Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, Lebanese Hizballah, Kata'ib Hizballah, and Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada are shown on the poster with the golden dome for the Sayyida Zaynab shrine in Damascus. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei is shown prominently in the left.

The dates these photographs were posted, their higher resolution (when compared to the video), the source(s) which published the information, and the utilization of the same bodies, conclusively establish that a Shia Islamist militia—most likely involving Hizballah, was behind the killings. The publishing of the photographs and the leak of the video of the killings further symbolize a new and carefully coordinated social and traditional online media campaign to show Syria’s rebels that Iranian-backed groups will resort to brutal means to win in Syria.

11 comments:

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I suppose the terrorist groups you propose should be in control of Syria haven't committed any crimes at all during this last two years? Which side is continually kidnapping countless Red Cross workers and Christians including bishops? How about the UN personnel that have been seized? How can you support the same thugs and murderers who have totally destroyed Libya? How would you react if these people decided we needed a change of government here in the UK? You need to do much better than this latest attack on Assad , even the BBC aren't promoting you any more.

Brown Moses ought to be Brown Bread. Your efforts to publicize anti-Syrian propaganda are well-known. In any case, our army is annihilating your savages, beheaders and cannibals. So much for your stinking rodent heroes.

The negative comments are very well organized, but largely amount simply to droning out unwelcome news, or nit-picking.

They certainly do not match the habitual care and detail of this blog's content.

Since it's not technically possible to derive or fake up higher-resolution still images from lower resolution video, separate source images of what are clearly the same victims would be compelling evidence in most courts of law. Although what they prove of themselves is that there were two different cameras present, or that one camera was used in two different modes, they reached the public domain by different routes with separate narratives supporting the author's conclusions.

In a way, all the bollocks posted in these comments by the Hasbara is useful, because we need to create and perfect the techniques needed to determine and expose the truth in the face of considerable opposition, trolling, spamming and the Hasbara, before civil conflict emerges in larger and more important theatres than Syria.